lost forests – MikePole

Was there a Forest before Central Otago’s Kowhai Forest?

A relict, but dead, kowhai, on the slopes of Criffel Peak. Directly behind the kowhai is Mount Roy - with relict beech forest. Lake Wanaka is to the right. Image: the author (Mike Pole).

When humans arrived in New Zealand, a bit over 700 years ago (Wilmshurst et al., 2008; Jacomb et al., 2014), it seems some of the driest parts of the country, in Central Otago, were under low forest, dominated by kowhai (Pole, 2022). Specifically, this was on the lower slopes of the gorges and slopes of… Continue reading Was there a Forest before Central Otago’s Kowhai Forest?

Dunedin’s Saddlebacks/Tieke and Yellowheads/Mopua

Three saddlebacks/tieke on Ulva Island (Stewart Island group, New Zealand). Photo: the author (Mike Pole)

Amateur field observations of species can be priceless. A local Dunedin man (Peter Thomson, 1823-1879), using the pen-name ‘Pakeha’, wrote several accounts of his ‘rambles’ around the area between 1864 and 1879. They appeared in Dunedin’s newspapers the Otago Witness and the Otago Daily Times (see articles by the historian Paul Star, 1998, and by… Continue reading Dunedin’s Saddlebacks/Tieke and Yellowheads/Mopua

Green Island Bush – Divide and Conquer

Relict trees from what was Green Island Bush, Saddle Hill in the background. Tree in the foreground is Broadleaf, Grisellnia littoralis. Photo: the author (Mike Pole).

Green Island Bush is a prime example of a large patch of New Zealand indigenous forest that was essentially annihilated in the late nineteenth century. It lay between today’s Green Island suburb, on Dunedin’s Southern Motorway, and the coast. Today the area is mainly farmland. Its original extent is shown partly on Charles Kettle’s 1849… Continue reading Green Island Bush – Divide and Conquer

The Lost Ecosystem of the Leith Swamp Forest, Dunedin

A portion of 'Kettle's 1847 map, 'Otago Land District SO 6’, showing the 'Leith Delta'. The green shading is interpreted as mostly 'bush/forest'.

One part of Dunedin is different from the rest…. The Dunedin area is an old volcano. It’s formed mostly from the molten, or semi-molten material that forced its way up from below, or some of the older marine strata that this material pushed its way through. In the few million years since the Dunedin volcano… Continue reading The Lost Ecosystem of the Leith Swamp Forest, Dunedin

Dunedin’s Ghost-Forests in 1901

A portion of one of W.T. Neill's maps showing a simple green-coloured patch an the left - interpreted as indigenous 'bush/forest. To the north and east are patches that are uncoloured, but filled with stipple, and have been partially trimmed to property lines - interpreted as 'ghost forest/bush'. This is in what is now the Fairfield area of Dunedin today, and has been cropped from: R23188990. Sheet No. 25 - Military Topographical Plan - Blocks VII and VIII Dunedin and East Taieri District - W T Neill, Surveyor (1907). Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington. (CC BY 2.0).

When a forest is dead, but somehow still there – either as bleached stumps, and felled, and possibly burnt trunks, I call it a ghost-forest. There were vast areas of ghost-forest (or ‘ghost-bush’ if you like) throughout New Zealand in the 19th century (see Envirohistory NZ’s post: ‘Scorched forest farm – Wildbore cache no.7‘ for… Continue reading Dunedin’s Ghost-Forests in 1901